Thursday, January 17, 2019

Lake Waconia ice is in great shape! With the cold nights we are growing ice fast. We did a quick check today and found ice ranging between 15 to 20 inches, with common ice around 17 to 18 inches. We still advise avoiding areas we have marked with lath board and flagging tape, as most of those are marking potential active springs. The larger marked area on the shallow side of Center Reef (north of most of the houses), will also remain marked as it froze last and is as little as 13 inches.

As for the bite, it has continued to be good. We’ve had sunfish biting well during the day in 11 to 14 feet of water in areas like Waconia Bay, Center Reef, Pillsbury Reef and the weed line of Wagener’s Bay. Crappies can be found in the similar areas during the evening, with some starting to bite a little deeper too. There have been some really nice northern pike caught this year and that has continued this week! Anglers have had great success fishing with sucker minnows around the same areas the sunfish and crappies have been biting. Walleyes have bitten been best away from heavy traffic and noise in the late evening or overnight hours in 14 to 20 feet of water. Check out the pics attached of a couple nice fish brought into us within the past week!

Take-a-kid fishing weekend (beginning Saturday, January 19th through Monday, January 21st) is going on statewide, so it’s a great time to bring a youngster out to Lake Waconia for some ice fishing! Per the Minnesota Fishing Regulations “Residents fish or spear fish for free when accompanied by a child age 15 or under”. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/minnaqua/icefishing/index.html Don’t have a fish house and want to get out of the cold and into a warm, ready-to-fish house, we rent them! Call (952) 442-2096 to reserve! We still have a few availabilities for the upcoming 3-day weekend.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

We haven’t done much of a fishing report so far this winter, so now sounds like a good time! Since ice conditions are MUCH IMPROVED, we’ll get to that part at the bottom of this update! We’ve been pleasantly surprised with a lot of fish activity this winter so far. Check out some of the fish pics attached to this post. Starting with sunfish, we have been seeing lots of action in Wagener’s Bay, Pillsbury Reef, Center Reef and Waconia Bay. Fishing around good weeds in 11 to 15 feet of water is a great bet to get into some nice bluegills and surprisingly nice pumpkinseeds. We’ve had a lot of reports of success on wax worms, with larva being good as well. The sunfish have been best during the day, but there have been evenings they have bit well too. Crappies can be found in the same areas, with some anglers finding them a little deeper off the weeds in 15 to 17 feet. Crappies have bitten best late afternoon into the evening. For those curious about the deep water crappie bite (over 20 feet) in Wagener’s Bay, we have not had reports of it turning on as of yet.

The big surprise so far this winter has been the tremendous northern pike bite. Again, fishing in similar areas to the panfish on the weedlines or above the weeds in 11 to 15 feet of water has been very good. We’ve had several stories of anglers getting some impressive catches of pike on panfish equipment. That’s always fun and interesting to hear! Of course it’s best to use heavier line with a small to medium sucker minnow if you’re going with live bait. We’ve had a variety of sizes of pike brought into the marina which is always good to see. We’ve also had some reports of pike being caught in the 40 to 42 inch range and released.

As for walleye, it has been fun to hear the reports and see some of the nice fish caught this winter. A lot of times in past years, anglers had been frustrated with catching too many undersized walleyes that don’t quite get to the Lake Waconia legal size limit of 16 inches. However, this winter has been different! There have been plenty of catches of legal fish between 16 to 20 inches, with some reported last weekend in the 27 to 28 inch range that were released! Many have used fathead minnows on jigging spoons or small to medium shiners on a rattle reels or tip ups. The best chance to harvest some Lake Waconia walleye is to spend the evening on the ice or overnight. Getting away from the larger crowds to lessen the noise/activity is a good idea too, although we have definitely had good reports amongst some of the most actively fished locations like Wagener’s Bay, Pillsbury and Center Reef. Waconia Bay has pumped out a few walleye as well. To get away from the crowd on ice we have checked thoroughly, it can be good between the marinas in what we call the “walleye hole” or “hump” depending on what part of the area you’re on. Also, Cemetery Reef can be a quality reef to hit if the conditions are right! 14 to 22 feet of water would be a common depth range to target them depending on your location.

Lake Waconia ice held up pretty well during that warm period last weekend and early in the week! Thankfully the cooler temps came and helped freeze most of the water up before higher winds came. Now that things are settled, we hope to see many of you out for this upcoming weekend of good weather! We are glad many of you kept a close eye on our reports, and are thankful we don’t have any bad news to report!

We spent a good portion of the day on the ice today, Thursday 1/10/19. The ice is back in GREAT shape. We drilled a bunch of holes in many of the areas people are driving to and found thicknesses between 13 to 17 inches. Many of the holes we drilled were between 15 to 16 inches. The ice that was 13 inches was between the island and Lakeview Terrace in the area we called “under the wires”, which is on the way from Waconia Bay to Center Reef. We also found 13 inches on the south side of Coney Island. We also drilled in the marked off area on the shallow side of Center Reef (that froze last because of birds) and that ice is catching up nicely. We will continue to leave it marked, as we did find as little as 11 inches there. Again, we focused our checks where the majority of anglers go, which is Wagener’s Bay, Pillsbury Reef, Center Reef, Waconia Bay and out to Cemetery Reef. We have not done any checking on Keg’s, North, Red’s or Anderson’s Reefs. If you plan to go to the areas we haven’t checked, stop inside to talk to us about the small active springs we have found and marked with lath board and flagging tape that lead out to those reefs.

Don’t forget, we RENT FISH HOUSES! This is still plenty of availability on upcoming weekends (including a few openings yet this weekend). We do our best to make it easy and comfortable for you, as we make sure the heat is on and the holes are open. All the houses have plenty of lighting, with 4 of the 5 having hole lights too! We have them set up in Waconia Bay in 12.5 to 13 feet of water in good sunfish and pike area for daytime, with a good chance at crappies in the evening. Call (952) 442-2096 to reserve. Click on the following link for more info… http://intownemarina.com/FishHouseRental.htm

Take advantage of the upcoming nice weekend and get on Lake Waconia. We’ll see you on the lake!

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Good news! Things are starting to firm back up on the surface of Lake Waconia. Thankfully, it got cold enough to begin freezing the standing water on the ice. Where there was less than 1 inch of water on the ice yesterday, it is now frozen. There are still plenty of areas that previously had 2 to 3 or more inches of water that is not frozen yet, but is starting to heal up. We have part of our access coned off to allow it to heal with the cold coming. However, you can get on and off our pay access just fine with cars and trucks with wheel houses. As always, drive at your own risk.

While we wait for the rest of the water to freeze lake-wide, if you have a fish house on the ice and have not checked on it, we still recommend doing so. There is still a potential for remaining water to drain into open holes under your house if you were in an area with deeper standing water. The risk is much less since it’s freezing up in a lot of locations, but it’s still a good idea to check it out.

As for the thickness of the ice, we did lose about a ½ inch on the surface, so expect to find between 12 to 16.5 inches in areas we have been driving to since the New Year. Please refer to our previous ice reports to see thicknesses in specific locations.

Keep in mind, it is VERY slippery out there, so drive slowly and get your ice cleats on. With the lack of snow in the forecast, we’ll be dealing with slick conditions for a little while.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Hey Everyone! It’s Monday, January 7th and we were on the ice early in the afternoon. With the mild weekend temps and overnight rain last night, we now have some standing water on a lot of the lake, especially around groups of fish houses. If you have a fish house on Lake Waconia, we suggest paying very close attention to it in the next 24 hours. It might be a good idea to check on it today and certainly by tomorrow afternoon. The forecast calls for temps to remain above 32 overnight and winds to be gusting into the upper 20 or low 30 mph range. With high winds and water on the ice, the wind will help increase swirling into any open fishing holes under your fish house (If your house is blocked too high allowing wind to swirl underneath). We suggest blocking your house on 2x4’s or less to keep it as close to the ice as possible without allowing for it to freeze in. Also, moving the house off open holes is a good idea as well. Some have even decided to pull their houses off the lake for a day or 2 and wait for the cold later this week. At this point, we are leaving our rental houses on the lake, as we have them blocked correctly. This is not a panic situation at the moment, but one that we advise should be taken seriously. Our access remains open for use, but may be limited if conditions worsen. We will update when we know more.

Friday, January 4, 2019

We have been having a lot of calls by people wondering about the warm weekend weather. Currently ice conditions are still very good! We don’t expect any major changes with ice thickness at this time. Of course the snow will likely melt and it will get slushy and wet in spots. Our pay access is holding up good as well. We are allowing trucks with wheel houses to come through us. We are finding between 12.5 to 17 inches of ice, with 14 to 15 inches more common in areas like Waconia Bay, the Walleye Hole, Cemetery Reef, Center Reef, Pillsbury Reef and Wagener’s Bay. We have not checked ice in areas such as Keg’s Reef, Red’s Reef, North Reef or Anderson’s Reef, so we still recommend checking your own ice if you’re headed to any of those areas. Also, still avoid areas that we have marked with lath board and flagging tape as they are either marking ice thinner ice or active springs. Thankfully those areas are few and far between.

Don’t forget, if you don’t have a fish house and want to make it easy, we rent fish houses! We make sure the heat is on and the holes are open ready to fish. We have all 5 of our rentals in Waconia Bay in 12.5 to 13 feet of water in good sunfish, crappie and northern pike area. They are close enough to walk to if you’d like, otherwise we are driving vehicles to them too. Here is a link for more information… http://intownemarina.com/FishHouseRental.htm Please call (952) 442-2096 to reserve!

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Good news! Last night’s cold put us over the hump! Our pay access is open for vehicle traffic today. We are finding a lot of very good ice in the 12 to 15 inch range on areas like Waconia Bay, The” Walleye Hole”, Cemetery Reef, Parts of Center Reef (where there aren’t marked thinner spots), Pillsbury Reef and Wagener’s Bay.

We are NOT driving all over the lake, as we have not checked ice If you are looking for ice thicknesses on areas we have not mentioned, we likely will not be doing any checks to locations like the north shore, Keg’s, Red’s, North and Anderson’s Reefs. We understand many people will be excited to spread out with wheel houses to locations away from the crowds, but please check ahead of yourself. As always, when driving out from our access, it is drive at your own risk.

With last night’s snow and wind we do have some banking snow on the lake. Drifts can be pretty substantial in the groups of fish houses, but you can meander around them pretty easily. Out in open areas, the drifting isn’t as bad as much of the ice is blown clean. Getting around with 2 wheel drive or a car is totally doable as long as you avoid the occasional bigger drift.

We have 3 of our Rental Fish Houses out and ready to fish! Please call (952) 442-2096 to reserve!See you on the Ice!